Every people should be the originators of their own destiny, the projectors of their own schemes, and creators of the events that lead to their destiny -- the consummation of their own desires.

Our elevation must be the result of self-efforts and work of our own hands. No other human power can accomplish it. If we but determine it shall be so, it will be so.

The rights of no oppressed people have ever yet been obtained by a voluntary act of justice on the part of the oppressors.

Let us have an education, that shall practically develop our thinking faculties and manhood; and then, and only then, shall we be able to vie with our oppressors, go where we may . . .

A serpent is a serpent, and none the less a viper, because it is nestled in the bosom of an honest-hearted man.

It is only in the mountains that I can fully appreciate my existence as a man in America, and my own native land

The claims of no people, according to established policy and usage, are respected by any nation, until they are presented in a national capacity.

Gracious words are refreshing to the soul.

In the twenty-first century, human minds, and to a lesser extent, human hearts can work like well calibrated precision instruments, but who can write the universal manual on imagination?

The dead know everything, but don't give a damn.

In hawthorn-time the heart grows light.

It seems that in Baltimore, one of the most violent cities in America, jurors are far more reluctant to convict criminal defendants than in the suburban enclaves that ring the city.

Freedom may be the soul of humanity, but often you have to struggle to prove it.

Sometimes you can't see your way out. The "dark night of the soul" - it's a reality for many, many people.

God give you pardon from gratitude and other mild forms of servitude.

Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes!

This policeman came up to me with a pencil and a piece of very thin paper. He said, "I want you to trace someone for me."